Having never played 7th Seas before, I felt it would be good to immerse myself in the setting by creating a character that could exist in the world. To this end, I started off with a mental image of the character. I have this love if kilts and since the Highland Marches of Avalon is basically Scotland, I decided my character would be from there and male. From there, I did the destiny spread to randomize a lot of details and to play with that mechanic.
First thing I want to say about building a character in 1e, the destiny spread probably is one of the funnest things I have come across in any character generator. Especially since I went piece by piece and explained how that bit came about and why the hubris is so predominant. I hope something similar ends up in 2e. As I was saying, I used the destiny spread, but I had read through some of the destiny spread second for the other nations as well and knew I wanted my character to be a magic user. One of the other nations I looked through was Voddace (I was looking more for info about these fate witches I was hearing about) and one result in particular caught my attention. A result of you having helped a noble family that was having hard times and was repaid with the daughter, who happened to be a full fate witch. I thought this neat and decided to incorporate that into my character regardless of what the destiny spread actually came up because it would be interesting story and I just like making characters. So, I had a kilt wearing man that was, for some reason, generous enough to a foreign noble family to be gifted a valuable/potentially powerful member of the family. And now I had second character to work on later. For the destiny spread, I got the Victorious virtue and Reckless Hubris. Upon seeing that, I knew which one to keep. A hero that never fails gets boring. A hero that rushes in where angels fear is exciting. I chose reckless. Note: It looks like 2e will have the player getting both and I like that over the 20 character generation point swing of 1e.
Next was the past of this character. I got that as a child, he cared little for pomp and circumstance and did what ever he wanted, which earned him a bad reputation. This was the seven of staves result and gave the free advantage of scoundrel. In the story, I decided that this character did not care to be gentle with his words, leading to a very direct personality, and that he was a bit of a wandering soul, always heading off in different directions, looking for things to do. For the present, he got that he was never satisfied with what life offers and that his rebellious desire to change things in a big way has resulted in being offered and accepting a membership in a secret society. This lead me down an interesting path since I wanted this character to be a sorcerer and to have a fate witch as a companion. Unfortunately, many secret societies have strong opinions on magic. Especially my first choice, Rilascarie. After that, I checked out the Die Kreuzritter and found something similar, but far more interesting. They were the perfect choice to act as a glue that would hold so many aspects of this character together and add so much extra depth. Especially the bit about having to give up everything you previously knew and loved for the service. It also gave me a side plot for both characters that could be advanced during the course of whatever story they were apart of.
The final part of the destiny spread is future, which is always vague and is suppose to be up to the GM. I am my own gm, so I got to decide the details. I got 9 of cups. That is "your pride will be your undoing. Nemesis 3". Well, this is suppose to be about the future, and I had decided that his companionship with the fate witch was a recent thing, and fate witches are noblewomen, and nobles are often in arranged marriages. So the Nemesis is the fate witch's ex-fiance. That just left a few details left for this character. I chose to go with Samuel as his name. I just thought Samuel sounds like a good name. Then there was the points for advantages and stuff. I decided to go with the DK shadow movement magic to better connect the character to the group and because it sounded awesome while having Samuel explain it as being a part of his Avalon heritage (glamour). I also wanted to have him be an extreme wanderer, never staying in a particular place for long, and have him linguist and several languages the other points I did not consider them spent on things that added to Samuel as a person and mostly just filled in the sheet. I think that is enough about Samuel from a mechanical standpoint.
I think in my next post in this thread I will introduce him as a person, then we get into his female companion and his nemesis. All three of these characters will be free to use as people want. This is more me explaining how I get into a new rpg setting.
TAJ-07: Technopriest And Justicar Of 7thSea2e
I just happened to draw the death arcana for the hubris.
Samuel is open about his highlander status (hard to hide being a highlander when you wear a kilt), but he does not wear his clan tartan. Samuel is not his real name.
For how he was first picked out as a person of interest to join, I was thinking he was a bit Reckless and fought a creature that was attacking a small hamlet that he happened to be in. He was saved by a phantom guard that was hunting that creature. After thanking the guard, Samuel went to find a child that was hiding from the monster and helped soothe the frightened child before helping them to their family.
Samuel knows that some distasteful things must be done to make the world better, but there are lines he would leave the group if the DK crossed.
Currently, I plan on the fate witch having her own reasons for following Samuel and that this reasons put herself first.
For the Nemesis, I was thinking, without having built him, that he would be an unbound that views others not as people, but as toys. He views Samuel as a thing that took away a particularly interesting toy before he got to play with it.
That plan is built on a psychological quirk of Samuel's I was thinking of including. Basically, both of them have difficulty setting others as people, but Samuel's family raised him well enough that Samuel has a more artistic take on humans in general. In specific to the fate witch, he sees her akin to a lump of clay to be molded into something to make the world more beautiful. He strives to make the world better by making people better and removing that which makes the world worse. And he finds trying to make people better more rewarding.
I like taking classic tropes and playing with them. Here I wanted to invert the not so different trope and highlight the difference in the similarity.
Salamanca makes a good point about power creep.
My biggest issue with the destiny spread was that, unless all of your heroes were from the same nation, you had to have all of the nations books to allow any of them.
As far as 2nd edition goes, it would be fun to see a SINGLE destiny spread option that focused only on the core book material. That would make it accessible to everyone and keep out the power creep.
I just like the "life path" aspect of the spread. You could take out the whole "card=advantage" aspect for me and just have it create a series of events and opportunities for players to follow up on in character creation. Just because the cards say you made an enemy in some port of call doesn't mean you have to put points into it and make it a real feature of your character. That would take power creep out of the game entirely, as the choices are left entirely in the player's hands.
I re-did the entire set of Destiny Spreads before the start of my current campaign, mainly to make them balanced. There was one set of results for each suit, and each Nation had two suits. I set it up so that the Past gave 3 points, the Present 5 points and the Future a 2 point Background that could be called on in the future.
I mostly set it up by picking things from the existing ones, and then filling in the blanks as appropriate.
So, either Theus or Fate works in mysterious ways.
I just did a destiny spread for the fate witch. I had a mental image of the kind of character I wanted to build and the destiny spread fell into place perfectly.
I started off with the virtue and got Willful. Which makes a lot of sense for how I imagined her as having pushed herself into going with Samuel and convincing her parents that this was good for herself and will not hurt the family. For her hubris, I got Envious. I was surprised to see that one, but after a second, I decided I could go with it and include elements of envy into her personality. Between the two, since the base rules are you get one or none, I decided Willful would be a more pomenient part of her personality.
Now we get into the events of her life. Her past was the 8 of coins, which is that she was once in love with someone, but both she and the one she once loved got bethroed to othes. This, I felt, would help establish the reason she has become more Willful and a bit more frigid in personality. The 2-point bethroed backgound I was going to play up over the 3-point romance background. She has love and lost. Her present was seven of cups which is that she is a very clever girl and gets the legendary wits advantage and linguist advantage for free. I had, penciled in, that one of her side reasons for going with Samuel was to get an education, even if it required lying or stealing the resources. This just solidified that aspect of her and helps build up an interesting story of a fate witch seeking knowledge for the sake of knowing more.
Her future is that the church will take someone close from her and leave her with Lost Love 2. If I remember correctly, a character can have up to 5 points in backgrounds. This is a great way to, going back to her past, shift the Romance Background away. This is a forth and possibly fifth character I will need to make that is focused solely off of the fate witch, but that just means I am creating a vibrant little group of people that are against each other in one way or another. And that means the world is a more interesting place.
Anyways, to sum up, the, still unnamed, Fate Witch is a young lady that has decided to go along with Samuel in order to get away from her bethroed and gain access to foreign sources of knowledge that are less guarded against noble ladies. There was a time when she was a happy and carefree girl, but the facts of life in Voddace has hardened her heart and made her a much icier person. In some ways, I imagine her being somewhat similar to Wednesday Addams, sharp of wit, but blunt in delivery. Curious about things in an apparently harsh way.
Part of the reason for the darker personality is because I think the combination of her Darkness and Samuel's brightness in public can lead to some comedy. I personally believe every game and story can benefit from some comedy. Especially horror. The best way to show how dark things get is by lighting up the shadows.
I will get fully prepared character sheets soonish for both the Fate Witch and Samuel, but this should provide an idea of where I am going with them.
"Samuel": Scoundrel
Brawn: 2
Finesse: 2
Wits: 3
Resolve: 3
Panache: 2
Reputation: -10
Background: Nemesis 3, Dead to the World 1
Arcana: Reckless
Profession: Monster Hunter/Monster Researcher
Advantages: Scoundral, Linguist, Able Drinker, Membership: Die Kreuzritter, Legendary (Wits), Sorcery (Nacht).
Languages: Avalon (r/w), Castille (r/w), Eisen (r/w), Montanaigne (r/w), Thean (r/w), Vendel (r/w), Voddace (r/w)
Criminal: Gambling 1, Quack 1, Shadowing 2, Stealth 3
Performer: Acting 1, Dancing 3, Oratory 1, Singing 1
Scholar: History 1, Mathematics 1, Philosophy 1, Research 2
Spy: Shadowing 2, Stealth 3
Streetwise: Socializing 2, Streetnavigation 2
Athlete: Climbing 1, Footwork 2, Sprinting 1, Throwing 1
Heavy Weapon: Attack (Heavy Weapon) 2, Parry (Heavy Weapon) 2
Physical Description: A man of above average height with a shaggy mop of dark brown hair and piecing blue eyes. Lean muscles developed from a combination of a love of dance and a pactical pactice with his claymore. He wears a traditional kilt in a clanless tartan that, for those who know the differences in the tartans, is for those without clans, but not part of the clanless militia. Usually worn by clanless orphans and those who have disgraced their clans and been exiled. Wears little in the way of jewlry with two exceptions that he will only remove when bedding down for the night. The first is a simple black cross necklace and the second is a plain silver band worn on his right middle finger. His clothes tend towards the practical and simple for ease of travel.
Personality: Generally very exuberant and in your face. He is quick to smile, laugh, and joke and rarely is serious. Tends towards a quiet, and contemplative attitude when in or near cemetaries and crypts, appearing to be partially somewhere else, thinking of something else. Has a tendency to not bother thinking before he does things, only choosing to use his mind when in a library setting where he picks up books on local lore, or to learn a new language. Uses what he has learned to help in his studying and slaying of monsters, taking careful notes of what he can about the fauna.
History: Aonghas MacAinndreas grew up in a family that did its best to make sure all their children's needs were cared for and instilled the importance of family into Aonghas and his siblings. The quiet life of a blacksmith's third son was not for the energetic and curious Aonghas who was often seen in the village getting into things he was not suppose to be. One well remembered story was of the distiller frog marching Aonghas through the streets with a dewildered look on his face and asking Aonghas's father about possibly apprenticing the boy. Aonghas lasted one and a half weeks at the apprenticiship before being found in the local lord's library, his nose in a book and notes on whiskey around him. It was the meeting after this event between the still master, Aonghas's father, and the local lord that determined the best thing was for Aonghas to become an adventurer and make his fortune in some other town where he could be someone else's problem and, Theus help them, maybe, eventually, bring prestigue to the town.
After a brief crash course on surviving on his own, Aonghas went out on his own with the promise to write home regularly and to come back only after he had made a name for himself. The letter writing went well, if one-sided. For six years as Aognas grew into manhood and travelled the Highland Marches, then the rest of Avalon, and finally out into the wider world, he wrote a letter every week and would send them either on their own or in a bundle whenever he found either someone heading towards Avalon or a carrier to take them. His family at times went monthes without a letter, only to get a bundle or several individual ones out of order. Their attempts to send replies rarely met with any success, but each of the reply messages that Aognas recieved were carefully put away and held onto to read during some of the lonelier parts of his travels.
During his travels, Aognas became increasingly curious about the various creatures that chose to attack humans and, especially the ones generally descripe as monsters. This lead to his occupation as a monster researcher. In order to keep funding his research he had to socialize and hunt monsters and found a way to use the tradition weapon of his people in an unorthodox, but effective, fighting style. His fighting style is, in a lot of ways, based upon dancing. Primarily, treating his claymore as a waltzing dance partner to avoid being hit while frustrating his opponent before switching to a more festive, high energy, street dance for actually striking. His fighting style has also gotten him very good at dancing and parties are often a great place to socialize and mingle while extracting money from possible patrons. His wanderlust had earned Aognas a bit of a poor reputation of being able to be kept on regularly, but he was well known enough that he would get small jobs fairly regularly and that was often enough to pay his expenses.
It was on an otherwise normal day of travel that Aognas came to a village somewhere in the northern border between Eisen and Montaigne being attacked by a creature that was a mockery of human form. Bipedal and skeletal thin with red tipped claws standing out against the night black flesh that tightly wrapped its frame. Hunched over it struck out with a dark cackling glee, the sound of meat being sliced coming from its throat in a false imitation of language. Seeing the gouges in the buildings and the red smears on the walls, Aognas lept in without hesitation. The fight was drawn out and Aognas was loosing ground as the beast managed to keep knicking the Highlander when a man in a black cloak came behind the creature and dealt a final blow. After making sure the creature stay dead, Aognas thanked the man who saved him and went straight to work helping dig out survivors and get the injured to medical attention.
This would be the last day of Aognas MacAinndreas. His savoir began the process of introducing Aognas to the secret order of Die Kreuzritter and Aognas accepted the group. His final letter was delivered by a fellow Avalon member as Aognas watched from a distance, the first time in six years he had been to his homeland. As he turned away, Samuel began to contemplate his future and the duty he had accepted. A duty to protect from the shadows and to make the world safer by any means.
Note: This is built using just 100 HP and the 1st edition books. Exp points would be needed to be spent on advanced knacks to more accurately show his skills. And a complete rebuild will likely need to occur once the 2e books come out.
I'll take a stab at describing the character brewing in my head, assuming I wind up in a game as a PC and not a GM. I'm also thinking of writing some kind of mini-series for myself in which this character might be the focal character. Hopefully long-timers can tell me how kosher he is with what's been revealed about Theah to this point. :)
This fella's name is Jeroen, a Vendel-born student at the University of Kirk, a very bright but otherwise unremarkable student finishing up his coursework as a linguist and/or historian. He's already got a decent job as a scribe, and he's hoping to parlay that into a permanent research gig at the university. He's also been assisted by the professor of the history department (Confidant background), who has greatly supported his desire to move into the faculty of the university. I haven't seen much about how education works in Theah, especially outside of Castille, but I'm guessing someone completing their university students would be around 18 years old.
Essentially, Jeroen's adventure is started when he finds his professor's office has been ransacked and the man has been savagely attacked. Jeroen learns that his professor is a member of one of the secret societies - I'm thinking Invisible College, but maybe Explorer's Society or Rilasciare - and that the prof's not-insubstantial research on Syrneth tech and other important work has been stolen. Jeroen's professor has some leads on who's taken the research and where they've gone, but he's far too old to leave his teaching position and travel potentially long distances. And so, sensing his student's desire to find out more about what's really going on in the world, the old man tasks Jeroen with finding some specific members of the secret society to enlist their aid. These people, or their connections, would wind up being the rest of the party.
Jeroen definitely isn't a fighter, but that ties into his other main (and probably more controversial) aspect: I want him to be a Laerdom sorcerer, but I want it to be somehow "activated" within him and not something he's been actively practicing up to this point in his life. He's surely studied it over the course of his university work, but for this character I think it's better to do the classic "in a life-threatening situation and his socerous abilities are instinctively activated." Maybe a cliche, but hey, they're cliches for a reason. :)
Seeing that Laerdom can be taught, unlike the other sorceries (that I'm aware of), is this legal to do? I also know that no Vendel has been a Master of Laerdom, but since Jeroen isn't an Objectionist (or anything else), I think that if Jeroen gets that far, I can justify saying that once he starts using runic sorcery, he would definitely begin researching the Living Runes and how one can live a balanced life of modern marvel and the "old ways."
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
Thanks for the feedback. So in your estimation, children (who can afford it) go through their educational years at roughly the same pace as modern kids?
Yes and no. The children of well to do families were, for the most part, tutored by a single individual in all subjects never formally "graduated" from such a program: a noble child was tutored in all subjects deemed appropriate but young adults received more specialized education as needed. The key with all education in the period is "as needed."
On the subject of age; a student entered Oxford or the University of Paris at about age 14, though students seeking higher degrees might remain well into their thirties. The speed at which a degree could be earned varied wildly from school to school and student to student.
While Universities roughly as we know them now existed, there was absolutely no requirement of a university degree in order to get a job outside of the three "higher" fields of Law, Medicine, and Theology. The theological aspect was pretty intense, as can be seen in the rules of the period at King's College. Similarly, universities were seldom organized in the way they are today; the curriculum largely consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the "trivium"), and arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy (the "quadrivium").
You are correct however in that, outside of aspiring priests, doctors, and lawyers, the principle reason for someone attending a university was to become a teacher. Once a student received the equivalent of a bachelor's degree (called a "baccalaureate"), he could petition the university for something called a licentia docendi, which amounted to a license to teach. Students rarely went on to teach at universities from which they did not graduate.
One important thing to keep in mind is that universities were predominantly "career-oriented" in that they produced teachers, lawyers, doctors and priests almost exclusively. Preparation for other "careers" was largely handled by apprenticeships, formal or otherwise; for the most part, you learned by doing or by serving under someone.
“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.”
- H.L. Mencken
It is 11:48 pm. I am a bit drunk and I have my concept for Samuel. Let us go through the steps of making him to see how quick the character creation is.
Step 0: Concept: Samuel is a kilt wearing monster Hunter/monster researcher partnered with a fate witch.
Step 0.5: 20 questions:
1. Nation: Highland Marches
2. Physical description: above average height male with a rough hair cut and a short beard from forgetting to shave. A slim build that hides how sturdy he is. Wears a simple tunic made of a light material with his kilt, both dirt stained. Has knee high, grass stained socks under his well worn boots. Carries a small travel pack that contains; a spare set of clothes, a money pouch, trail rations, books, writing materials, and three journals. Has a claymore strapped to his back and a small dagger with a decorative handle in his right sock.
3. Mannerisms: To be developed
4. Motivation: "The world is big place. Full of murder, rape, theft, and people maliciously tripping each other. The nights are dark, the monsters real, and, in the end, every last one of us humans will some day die. You ask me why I fight these monsters. I reply, 'Let us return to the party and have a pastry.' "
5. Greatest strength: A very practical mindset. Why try to go to the trouble of creating some special elixir, pouring it onto bait, and poisoning a monster when, generally speaking, things tend to die when you remove the head. If that doesn't work, fire. Still doesn't work, then you remove the limbs of this probably undead monster, bury each piece in a separate place, leave as few clues, preferably no clues, about the location of the pieces, and document the methods taken to attempt to end the monster so future generations can deal with it if it comes back.
Weakness: A cynical world view that makes getting emotionally close to others difficult despite his generally bright personality.
6. Favorite things: sweets. Especially fruits and pastries. Has a guilty pleasure of trashy novels.
Least favorite: Flowery foods and drinks, including hoppy ales.
7. Usually bright and cheerful, but, when tired, quick to harsh words.
8. Fear: Slow deaths. Like a wasting disease or having blood removed one needle full at a time till you have died from blood loss. Any sort of slow, prolonged form of dying makes him feel ill to his stomach.
9. Highest ambition: To write the modern version of the guide to monsters that detail as many facets about the various dangerous being in Theah and beyond.
10. Opinion on Country: "It is where me family resides. And family is a most precious thing."
11. Prejudice: Finds most nobles to be very impractical and generally only wants to deal with them for research funding.
12. Loyalty: Life, his research, his family. In order of most to least. Everything else gets loyalty based upon how it helps those three.
13. Love life: unofficially betrothed to his fate witch companion, which enables her to travel with him.
14. Family: to be written when sober.
15. Mother's description: "He is such a smart lad. And such a hard worker. I just wish he would come visit more often. I do hope he is taking care of himself."
Father's description: "He lives a dangerous life. I have to check the post to make sure he does not write about the dangerous things he had been up to or his mother will worry. I know he can handle it, but his mother doesn't need to know."
16. Gentle: Has elements of being one, but not enough.
17. Religion: Does not practice, but generally says he is a part of the Objectionism Church if anyone asks.
18: membership: DK
19. Thoughts on sorcery: It is a tool. Knives can be used to cut vegetables or necks. So too can sorcery be used to help or hurt.
20. Advice: "He who hunts monsters must be careful he does not become a monster."
It is now 12:55 am. Most of that was writing the answers to the questions when they are probably generally best used as a way to better think about the character outside of stats. Generally, I like the 20 questions, but will ask the players to answer them either during play while they are out of the spotlight, or outside of the game session to facilitate getting into the game faster.
Step 1+2: traits/national bonus:
Brawn: 3
Finesse: 2
Resolve: 3
Wits: 3
Panache: 2
I want a smart character that is quick to think on his feet, so wits was the first thing I bought. Knowing I would get either a bonus to finesse or brawn, I thought about whether or not I wanted him to be particularly charming, or if I wanted him to be more physical. I chose physical and basically had to decide on whether I wanted him to be stubborn mentally and physically or both strong and agile. I chose stubbornness because of the physical description mentioning his physical sturdiness. That, likewise, lead me to choosing brawn since I described him as having a claymore strapped to his back. Knowing that traits can be upgraded twice before they can only be moved around, I would earmark wits as one to be upgraded to play up his intellect and add in finesse. This would make a physically balanced, if above average fitness, character whose intellect has caused his social abilities to be comparatively stunted.
Step 3: backgrounds:
Looking through the list, scholar and the h
Highlands March specific Seanchaidh both play up the intellectual side of the character. Seanchaidh also plays up the monster Hunter side due to being a warrior poet. Duelist is the only other background that works for the fighting side. Farmkid would work well with the mentality Samuel already has and would start the story of his family life before he went out into the world.
I feel warrior poet is the best bet for him, and it comes down to either scholar for university and a 1 point advantage (warrior poet and scholar both have linguist) or farmkid for the legendary trait and Survivalist (which is one of the two choices for what I would replace scholars linguist with, the other being able drinker, leaning strongly to survivalist) because both works work well for me. Either way, I think the choice for step 5 will be duelist academy.
It is now 1:32 am. I think writing the whole process down into the forum on my phone is the biggest thing slowing me down.